The present invention relates to a novel aircraft structure.
Most paper airplanes do not employ a curved or cambered wing. This is believed to be due to the fact that the overall weight of a paper airplane is light relative to the surface area of the wings. Thus, adequate lift is achieved without curvature of the wing. Stability of flight occurs by bending the trailing edge of the wing structure. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,439 and 4,033,070 describe or show a toy flying object having wings of relatively uniform thickness.
The lifting force of a wing is achieved by air deflection. A wing meets the air flow of an angle of attack and the airflow is caused to change direction. In other words, the mass and velocity of the deflected air equals the lift imparted to the wing, an action-reaction system.
In the case of an unswept and untapered flying wing the angle of attack is established by shaping the airfoil such that the airflow is directed slightly upwardly at the trailing edge. This effect pushes the rear of the wing downwardly keeping the entire wing at a positive angle of attack. Flexing regions at the trailing edge of the wing are employed in this regard.
An aircraft structure which employs a balanced wing design without a flexing region would be notable advance in the aerodynamic field.